Water Report Help

[Shmeffrey]

I recently moved and just got the Ward Labs results back. I'm on a well near Orillia, Ontario. I'm getting my new electric brewery up and running and I'll post a build thread soon.

pH 8.0
TDS 191
Sodium Na 3 ppm
Potassium K 1
Calcium Ca 45
Magnesium Mg 14
CaCO3 171
Sulfate SO4-S 3
Chloride Cl 2
Carbonate CO3 <1.0
Bicarbonate HCO3 281
Alkalinity CaCO3 232
Phosphorus <0.01
Iron <0.01

After looking at the EZ water calculator my water seems ideal. I'm surprised by the Calcium and pH.

Is the pH an issue? Thanks,

 

[ajdelange]

The pH is not an issue (it never is) but the alkalinity is a problem for you. You will have to dispose of that in order to brew most beers to their fullest potential. The easiest thing (but not the least expensive) would be to install an RO system (IOW throw this water away). The least expensive thing (but somewhat complicated) would be to add calcium chloride and/or sulfate and boil the water. You have 4.6 mVal (232/50) alkalinity and 2.25 mVal calcium. You need to add enough calcium salt to get calcium up to at least 4.6 mVal plus what you want the calcium level of your mash water to be - 1. Boiling will cause about 3.6 mVal of alkalinity to drop out taking 3.6 mVal of calcium with it. You can achieve the same thing by adding milk of lime to water that has had the calcium supplementation but that is more complicated still if done right. Part of the problem with these decarbonation methods is that you have to analyze the treated water to see how you did.

Another simple method is to treat the water with enough acid to bring its pH to mash pH. This zeroes out the alkalinity but leaves anion of the acid. With your 4.6 mVal alkalinity you are going to need about 4.1 mEq of acid for each liter of water (about 12 mEq/gal which is about a mL of lactic acid) and that may be OK if you don't require much more lactic acid for the grist. It is not a show stopper but it is something you should be aware of.

 

[Shmeffrey]

Thanks! I have an RO system in the kitchen so I can collect 3 gallons at a time ahead of brew day for now. I already brewed one batch on the new system with RO water because it was before I received the water test results.

In the future I will probably add an RO system to the brewery with a large storage tank.